The US Senate blocks the 447 billion dollar plan to support the job market presented by President Barack Obama.
In the procedural vote to initiate discussion of the plan, the quota of 60 votes needed was not reached. The vote will remain open for several hours waiting for a Democrat to return to Washington but the outcome will not change with the 40 votes needed to block the initiative already achieved.
The no of the 47 Republican senators was taken for granted, but weigh i two opposites among the Democrats, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana. At this point the White House will focus on the strategy that Obama had anticipated, that is the law will be divided into parts to be voted on individually.
“We will make sure that the various proposals are put to the vote as soon as possible,” the president said. The strategy is also and above all political: if the Republicans oppose all the tranches of the law, the president will have an easy time accusing them of immobility and pointing them out to the electorate next year as accomplices in the economic crisis.
Il Obama's plan includes payroll tax cuts, corporate and other tax breaks totaling $270 billion and $175 billion in infrastructure investment. Unlike the 2009 stimulus plan, the costs of the current law would be covered with a 5,6 percent surcharge on incomes over $XNUMX million.
